Saturday, September 26, 2009

Flint Postcards: Industrial Savings Bank

Gerry Godin, author of the All Things Buick blog, has come to the rescue again with more photos and information about the Industrial Bank pictured above, which was once located at the corner of Hamilton and Industrial. This was the second location of the bank; the first was in the nearby W.F. Stewart factory.

Here's a close up of the original location.

Another shot of the bank at Hamilton and Industrial that includes the surrounding Oak Park neighborhood.

A new bank building was constructed at the corner of North Saginaw and Second Avenue in 1923. It's now the Northbank Center.

This 1930 Ariel view of Flint shows the Bank in the upper left corner,across from the Durant Hotel.

A more recent shot of the Northbank Center by Sarrazak6881, who has a great collection of Flint photos.

I have a vague childhood memory that there was a bank building on the NW corner of Chevrolet and Glenwood that looked something like this.

There's still a building there according to satellite photos...interestingly, with a slight parallelogram instead of rectangular footprint...but I haven't been by there in years and don't know whether it's the same structure or something newer.

I'm not sure. Is this the bank on the corner near Chevy in the Hole, next to the bar...the Sundowner? Is that that Chevrolet and Glenwood that J Willy is talking about? I think so. Here's the very long google street view link:

Actually, at 200% it's pretty apparent that the subject building is painted brick, so a currently unpainted brick building could be it.

However, the Chevrolet and Glenwood bank building isn't it. The front cornice is different, the front structure is different, and the east face has longer and has eight windows with unequal heights instead of six with equal heights.

Lewis and Broadway is closer, but the south-face entrance is in the wrong place and the brickwork is built differently in many ways. I don't think they could be the same.

There's a brick ex-bank building with roughly these proportions across Saginaw from the old Fisher plant between Atherton and Hemphill (the recent Luge bar), but it's oriented wrong and the construction details are different.

How funny... a friend of mine was just asking about the NorthBank Center. He was touring the new Durant renovation, and saw that building across the street and thought it was amazing. Wondered what it used to be. Now we know. :)

What I really like about the photo with the cars in front, is that the first one dose not have it's body installed yet. Back then Buick would test them on the track first and then install the body after it passed the test. This test driver must have needed to do a little banking on his way back to final assembly.

The Industrial Savings Bank merged with Union Trust and Savings Bank at the same time embezzlement charges were announce against several employees (unclear which bank). They went ahead and build a new building on the site of the Union Trust & Savings Bank building in months called the Insdustial Union Building, now called the Mott Building.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Trust_and_Savings_Bank_(Michigan)http://www.mott.org/about/~/media/mfbwebsiteslideshowv8%20ppt.ashx

I have a small metal bank that says Industrial Savings Bank Flint, MI on it. It is 2 inches high by 3 1/2 inches wide. Can anyone tell me anything about it? It has a lockon the bottom (I do not have a key!).

Thanks for commenting. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.

"Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City" by Gordon Young

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Flint Expatriates

A blog for the long-lost residents of the Vehicle City by Gordon Young

"I grew up on the Eastside and recall the unexplained pride I felt when the 3:30 Buick factory whistle blew and the roughly dressed workers poured out of the General Motors labyrinth swinging their lunch pails. Some were headed for home and some for the corner bar, but all with the determined step of an army after a battle won. I somehow felt as if I were a part of this giant assembly line and the city it fed."